Tuesday, 4 November 2014

This is very aromatic autumn recipe. The cake is spicy, moist and deliciously sweet wit sour bits of plums. The recipe comes from BBC GoodFood wall calendar.

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

140g butter or margarine

100g brown sugar

100g golden syrup or honey

6 plums (about 250g)

140g whole spelt flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp ginger

1 tbsp crystallised ginger

85g oats

2 eggs

Line muffin tin with paper cases. Preheat the oven to 180C.

Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup into a sauce pan and heat it up until all ingredients melt together.

In a meantime chop the crystallised ginger and set aside.

Cut the plums into quarters. Set aside.

When all ingredients are melted add the flour, baking powder, salt,, ginger, chopped ginger, oats and eggs. Stir all ingredients together until well combined. Spoon the batter into paper cases up to 3/4 full. Set aside about 2 tablespoons of batter.

On top of each muffin place chunks if plums.

Ingredients for the crumble:

25g flour

25g oats

2 tsp chopped ginger

The flour, oats and ginger place in a small bowl add the remaining batter and stir well. Sprinkle over each muffin top. Mine crumble was too dry :(

Tuesday, 28 October 2014

This is Ina Garten's recipe for German chocolate cupcakes . As usually cupcakes were divine. Spongy, chocolate cake with lovely rich custard frosting packed with coconut, almonds and pecans. I truly recommend it to everybody.

Ingredients for 24 cupcakes:

170g butter

150g sugar

120g brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

250 ml buttermilk

125 ml sour cream

2 tbsp freshly brewed coffee

295g flour

41g coca powder (should be twice that much but I haven't got more in the cupboard)

1 1/2 tsp soda

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Place the flour, cocoa powder, soda and salt in a bowl and whisk them together. In a separate bowl whisk the buttermilk, sour cream and coffee.

Butter, sugar and brown sugar beat in an electric mixer until fluffy for about 5 minutes. Add one egg at a time. When egg are well incorporated add the vanilla extract. Then beating continuously add alternately the flour and buttermilk mixture in three additions.

Transfer baked cupcakes into a wire rack to cool down. In a meantime prepare the frosting.

Frosting ingredients:

170g butter

410g evaporated milk

230 g brown sugar

4 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond essence

135g dessicated coconut

100g almond flakes

50g chopped pecans

1/4 tsp salt

Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Stir in the milk, brown sugar and egg yolks. Heat this mixture up stirring continuously. Cook for 15 minutes until thickens. Set aside from the heat and add the vanilla extract and almond essence. Then stir in the coconut, almond, pecans and salt. Set aside for an hour to cool the mixture down.

Sunday, 26 October 2014

This recipe comes form addio pomidory blog. It's interesting by its simplicity. Only few ingredients make very tasty delicious dessert.

Ingredients for 6 cupcakes:

380g tinned poppy seed cake filling

1/4 cup of sugar

3 eggs

4 tbsp bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 170C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Then gently fold in the poppy seed cake filling and breadcrumbs. Spoon the batter into paper cases filling them up to the top. Bake in preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes.

Tuesday, 30 September 2014

Karmi beer is an non alcoholic caramel beer, dark sweet rich in flavour. This time instead of drinking it I used it to bake muffins. Have to say it was good experiment. Moist, dark, sweet muffins wit chunks of apples had an interesting taste.

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

3 medium size apples

20g butter

1 stick or 1 tsp cinnamon

3 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp oats

1 cup of plain flour

1 cup of wholegrain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp soda

2 eggs

10 ml canola oil

400 ml Karmi beer

Slice the apples. Heat up the frying pan. Add the butter, sugar, cinnamon. Then add the apples and stir from time to time. When apples soften add the oats. Set aside to pan and let the ingredients to cool down.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

In one bowl whisk together the flours, baking powder and soda. In separate bowl whisk the eggs with oil. Pour the wet ingredients into a dry ones add the Karmi beer and stir until just combined. The fold in the cooked apples (remove cinnamon stick).

Saturday, 23 August 2014

Kasztanki are my favourite sweets. Crunchy, cocoa filling covered in thick layer of rich, dark chocolate. This time I have decided to bake them in muffins. The recipe comes form here. The result ? I think they were ok but I wouldn't say were extremely delicious. After the author of these recipe i have decided not to add sugar into the dough but now I think I should. Anyway they were eaten and nobody complained :)

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

1 and 3/4 cup of flour

1 tsp soda

1 tsp baking powder

10 Kasztanki

100g butter

50g chocolate (I used milk one)

125 ml yogurt

2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 180C. line muffin tin with paper cases.

Place the chocolate and butter into a sauce pan and heat up until both ingredients melt down. Set aside to cool down.

Chop the Kasztanki into small chunks. In a big bowl mix the flour, soda, baking powder you may add few tablespoons of sugar. Stir in the Kasztanki chunks.

Add yogurt into melted chocolate and stir well. Then add the eggs. When all wet ingredients are well combined pour the mixture into dry ingredients. Mix everything until just combined. The batter is very thick.

Spoon the batter into prepared earlier paper cases about 3/4 full. Bake in preheated oven for 15 - 20 minutes until well risen and golden.

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

Easy to make, gluten free, perfect dessert for hot summer days. There is no need to bake. Mixed dates and pecans are very sticky and it's easy to make tartlets of this mixture. Although a few minutes of chilling is recommended. To make delicious, rich, chocolate cream melted chocolate and Mascarpone cream is enough. We loved them.

Ingredients for 4 tartlets:

200g dates

70g pecans

Put the dates and pecans into blender and mix them until finely blended. The mixture should resemble bread crumbs but when pressed small bits should stick to each other.

Divide the mixture among four tartlets' tins. Press the bits with your fingers or back of the spoon to the bottom and sides of the tins. Insert to the fridge to chill for a few minutes.

In a meantime prepare the filling.

Ingredients for chocolate cream:

about 120g dark chocolate

about 150g Mascarpone cream

4 pecan halves for decoration

chopped pecans for decoration

Melt the chocolate in a microwave or in a bowl placed over a pot with simmering water. Set the melted chocolate aside for a few minutes to cool down. Then add Mascarpone cheese. Using and electric mixer whisk until smooth.

Remove the tartlets from the fridge. Divide the cream among all of them. Smooth the cream on the top. Place one pecan halve in the middle of each tartlets and sprinkle the edges with chopped pecans.

Monday, 16 June 2014

Gluten free coconut mini muffins are very easy to make. They contain three ingredients only. They are very sweet, chewy, packed with fibre and their smell is just beautiful. This is perfect recipe when you have just one egg white hidden in the fridge.

Ingredients for 8 mini muffins:

1 egg white

50g sugar

100g dessicated coconut

Preheat the oven to 200C. Slightly grease the muffin tin cups

Using electric mixer whisk the egg white until stiff. Add the sugar and whisk again until shiny. The gently fold in the coconut.

Spoon the mixture into muffin tin cups filing each cup up to the top.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 - 20 minutes until golden.

When baked leave them in muffin tin for a few minutes then transfer to the plate.

Saturday, 14 June 2014

It was close to my youngest 4th birthday when I realised I have no idea what cake to bake. Asking the birthday girl was pointless as her imagination is greater then my decoration skills. I was looking for something tasty, easy to make and easy to serve. Attending to different parties I have seen too often beautiful birthday cakes not eaten, parents struggling to cut the cake... ah not this year. This year I have decided to bake my children's favourite chocolate cupcakes, arrange them into a cake and decorate them with frosting. When I asked my little one about sun cake she was delighted. I am aware of the fact that this cake doesn't look professional but it was home baked, tasty, took seconds to serve and what is more important most of it was eaten.

Ingredients for 20 cup cakes:

250g margarine for baking

4 tbsp milk

4 tbsp baking cocoa

1 1/2 mug* of sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 mug* of flour

2 tbsp baking powder

16 g vanilla sugar

*take regular coffee mug

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line a muffin tin with paper cases.

In a sauce pan put the margarine, milk, sugar, cocoa powder and bring it
to boil stirring all the time. When it is boiled let the mixture to
cool down. After some time, when the mixture is room temperature, add
the flour, baking powder, vanilla sugar and egg yolks. Give it a good
stir. In separate bowl whisk egg whites until stiff (add pinch of salt).
Gently fold the egg white foam into the batter. Spoon the batter in
paper cases 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20 min. Check with toothpick if baked
in the middle.

Transfer baked cupcakes to the wire rack to cool them down completely. While cooling down prepare the frosting.

Frosting:

300g Philadelphia cream cheese

250g soft butter

2 cups icing sugar

food colourings

Put the soft butter into an electric mixer bowl and whisk until smooth. While whisking add icing sugar. When the sugar is well incorporated start adding cream cheese. When all cream cheese is added increase the speed and whisk until smooth and fluffy.

Divide the frosting among bowls and stir in the food colourings to get desire colours. Chill in the fridge for about an hour.

Arrange the cooled cupcakes on a tray. Transfer the frosting into piping bags. Use the yellow frosting to create the Sun, fill the gaps with blue frosting and with black and red create the face.

Thursday, 12 June 2014

Today's recipe : cheesecake topped with some fruits and jelly. Sound yummy ? I promise it was yummy. It is not difficult to prepare this dessert but it's a bit time consuming. Anyway it's worth it !

Ingredients for 7 XL size cheesecakes:

cheesecake layer:

450g cream cheese

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

110g sugar

bottom layer:

200g digestives biscuits

95g butter

jelly:

1 packet of jelly

tinned fruits

Put the cream cheese, egg, vanilla and sugar in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Melt the butter and set aside to cool it down. Place the biscuits in a bag and smash them with rolling pin until reassemble fine crumbs. Mix with melted butter.

Spoon this mixture on the bottom of beach paper case, so the bottom is evenly covered. Press the crumbs to the bottom with back of the spoon.

Then spoon thick layer of cream cheese mixture on top.

Place the muffin tin in preheated oven for 20 minutes. When ready remove form the oven and set aside to cool down. You may remove each cheesecake form muffin tin as this will speed up the cooling down process.

In a meantime prepare the jelly. Dissolve packed of jelly in a hot water. To speed up the setting process reduce recommended amount of water by 100ml. Set aside to cool down.

When cheesecakes are cooled down put them back into muffin tin. Place some fruits on top of each cheesecake, then pour in the jelly. Put the tin to the fridge and keep the cheesecakes there until the jelly sets.

Monday, 26 May 2014

Moist, fluffy cake with crunchy cinnamon sugar coating filled with nutella just yum :). They were perfect, especially for the day when too much sugar is not enough sugar. We really enjoyed them. The recipe comes form this web site.

Ingredients for 8 muffins:

75g butter

100g sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

120 ml milk

190g flour

1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

8 tsp nutella

Grease or line with paper cases the muffin tin. Preheat the oven to 220C.

Into a big bowl put the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and mix them well.

In separate jug mix the egg, milk and vanilla.

Using hand or free standing mixer beat the butter and sugar together until smooth and creamy. Pour in the wet ingredients and mix them in. Then stir in the dry ingredients. Do not over mix the mixture.

Spoon the batter into paper cases, 1 table spoon each. Then add 1 teaspoon of nutella and cover with batter. You may fill the muffin holes up to the top they won't overflow.

Insert into an oven. Bake in 220C for first 5 minutes then reduce the temperature to 175C and bake for another 15 minutes. When baked transfer to the wire rack to cool down.

While the muffins are cooling down prepare the cinnamon sugar topping.

Cinnamon sugar topping:

50g sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

45g butter

Melt the butter and set aside. In a small bowl mix the sugar and cinnamon together. Take one muffin and dip it in melted butter then dip it again in cinnamon - sugar. Press a bit so all top would be evenly coated with sugar. Repeat with remaining muffins.

Sunday, 25 May 2014

Very tasty, packed with fibre, rhubarb muffins with barley flakes crumble. We liked them a lot. I think they are perfect for lunch box. Freshly baked were light and fluffy the next day were bit moist and dense but still very good. And the lovely, crunchy, buttery crumble.. yummy.

Ingredients for 5 big muffins:

75g rhubarb

3 tbsp sugar

40g oat bran

3 tbsp barley flakes

150g flour

3 tbsp palm sugar (you can use demerara instead)

1 tbsp baking powder

150g natural yogurt

1 egg

100 ml milk

Cut the rhubarb into small chunks place in a sauce pan add sugar and cook until release juices. Set aside to cool down.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Put the bran, barley flour, sugar baking powder in a big bowl and mix them together.

In separate jug mix the yogurt, milk and egg.

Add the rhubarb into a dry ingredients bowl and stir. Pour in the wet ingredients and mix them until all ingredients are just combined.

Spoon the batter into paper cases, about 3/4 full. Then chop additional piece of rhubarb into small chunks and sprinkle on top of each muffin.

Crumble:

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp barley flakes

30g butter

2 tbsp flour

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix them with your fingers until start forming chunks. Sprinkle those chunks on top of each muffin.